Feuz Wins Mens' DH, Hector Takes GS Gold

Heading into the second run of the women’s GS, Sara Hector (SWE) was leading the pack with a 0.30-second margin over Austrian, Katharina Truppe, and a 0.42 second lead on Federica Brignone (ITA).

The Swede tackled the second run and managed to hold onto the 1st place to claim her very first Olympic medal, and it being gold, made it all that much sweeter.

She said "Crazy. I'm so proud, I can't put it into words. I really tried to push it and give it all I got. It's just amazing."

After finishing third in the first run, Federica Brignone (ITA) was ready and set to for the second run to try and claim another Olympic GS medal. The Italian placed 3rd in 2018, however, this season she has not yet claimed at World Cup GS podium result. Focusing on the run ahead of her, she finished with a total time difference of 0.28 seconds behind Hector.

On her performance she aid I came here without a podium in GS. I'm getting better and better with my confidence this year, but GS was always like OK, I'm doing a run OK, or some splits OK, but never two runs. Today I was really focused and when I put my poles out for the second run - we were waiting so much for the second run, and also the start. I was waiting and waiting and I said 'oh my god, this is so long'. But in some way I was calm. I knew that I just had to ski, I was thinking about my skiing, and when I arrived to the gate I said, 'it's just ski racing'.I was really focused, and that was the thing for me today."

In third place, Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI) was thrilled after claiming her first Olympic GS podium result. The Swiss skier has recently been struggling to put in consistent performances throughout the World Cup season so was uneasy coming into today’s race.

On claiming a medal she said "I've been struggling a lot in the last time. One day I'm skiing well, the other one I'm just fighting. Today was exactly the same. The first run I was trying and nothing went well. The second run was again easy, so I'm really happy. It's amazing to win a medal in GS."

"In my career I never set myself goals or that I want a medal because I know I have to focus on skiing. My mind has been like, it would be cool to win a GS medal because for me GS is important. Last year, winning a gold in Cortina (at the world championships), and now this bronze — yeah, it's amazing."

Mikaela Shiffrin, who walked into the day's race carrying the weight of gold-medal expectations on her shoulders, did not finish her first run, skiing out around the fifth gate.

"We point blame at a lot of places in the season, but I think the easiest thing to say is that I skied a couple good turns and I skied one turn a bit wrong, and I paid the hardest consequence for that. Now we have to move forward because there’s a lot still to come the next week."

The defending giant slalom Olympic gold medalist was not the only top skier who struggled right out of the gate. Italy's Marta Bassino of Italy made a similar mistake on the same gate and skied out of the course. New Zealand's Alice Robinson also lost her cool on the top section of the first run.

After having to push back the men’s downhill until today, due to weather conditions, athletes were finally about to tackle “The Rock” and fight for the first alpine gold medal.

Wearing bib 13, Switzerland’s Beat Feuz skied a brilliant run, setting the day’s new to time beat of 1:42.69 and bumping down Mayer and Crawford. France’s Johan Clarey, the oldest skier on the tour, put down a stellar run and managed to sneak into second place 0.10 behind Feuz. Two-time Olympic downhill gold medalist, Mattias Mayer, took bronze.

Two-time Olympic medallist, Beat Feuz (SUI), was coming into these Olympics off a high after winning the last downhill race in Kitzbuehel (AUT). After putting in a clinical run, the Swiss skier is now able to add another important trophy to his cabinet, an Olympic gold medal, his first. In 2018, Feuz claimed 2nd and 3rd place in the Super G and downhill, respectively, but now has been able to close the trio. Feuz stated, "The Olympics are a big thing, and today it worked for me. In (PyeongChang) four years ago I was second and third, but today everything came together. It means the world to me. I can't think of anything more beautiful than flying home with a gold medal around my neck."

Finishing only 0.10 seconds behind Feuz, Johan Clarey (FRA) claimed the silver medal to make him the oldest Olympic medallist in alpine skiing. The record previously belonged to Bode Miller (USA) who claimed bronze in the men’s Super G in 2014 at the age of 36 years and 127 days. This title now belongs to Clarey who won silver at the age of 41 years and 29 days. 

The Frenchman stated:"I was pushing, pushing, taking a lot of risk. I knew I only had one chance left in my career to get a medal in the Olympics.When you are a medallist (whether) you are 20 or 41 it doesn't matter, it's just an Olympic medal. It's already a good memory."

Chasing three Olympic gold medals in a row was Austrian, Matthias Mayer. Mayer who was contending to become the first skier to win three gold medals in speed events, held onto the lead until Feuz surpassed him by 0.16 seconds. Nonetheless, Mayer finishes on the podium in 3rd claiming a bronze medal. "What should I say? It's an Olympic bronze medal, I'm very happy. It was a really great race, it was such a close race. Everyone did their best. I feel pretty happy" Mayer said.

Potentially one of the biggest and nicest surprises of the day was seeing James Crawford (CAN) send it down the course to claim fourth in his first Olympic downhill race. The Canadian finished a mere 0.07 seconds behind Mayer. Not only was this Crawford best Olympic result across all disciplines, but it is his best result including the World Cup races.

Heading into today’s race, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (NOR) had set the bar high for himself, which is understandable being the current downhill World Cup standings leader. Unfortunately, his performance today was not enough to earn him a downhill Olympic medal. The Norwegian said "I had high expectations for sure. It's been a great season and, in the Olympics, when you stand there as a favourite, you want to deliver. I did a hard race, 100%, but it was not good enough for a medal today. Unfortunately, I had some mistakes that cost me too much. The Olympics are not over yet so I just have to keep on going."

The Swiss rocket, Marco Odermatt, put in a valiant effort for his first time competing at an Olympic Games with a 7th place finish.